After the Hamburg world jumped the gun, or at least the teams' social media manager anyway, by tweeting that Pierre-Michel Lasogga will be loaned out to Leeds. However, the deal hasn’t been completed, but sides are hoping to come to an agreement on a deal before the deadline. The tweet has since been deleted
But in the meantime, Leeds went ahead and completed another signing of a different striker. The Whites signed Malmö FF’s Swedish striker Paweł Cibicki, managing to A)Strengthening its Swedish connection
B)Make Pontus Jansson even more loyal by signing a player from his boyhood club
C)Fill a position of need
D)Giving us more of an excuse to cover Malmö
In all seriousness, Paweł Cibicki is a name many people have not heard of. Cibicki was born in Malmö to Polish parents, and he’s played for both Poland and Sweden in the U19-21 levels. He started his youth career at Nydala IF before joining Malmö and has played for the Di blåe since then. In 2016, Cibicki was sent out on loan to J-Södra IF. Prepare yourself to start scrutinizing his numbers. Just in his time on loan at J-Södra, Cibicki made 26 appearances and scored 44 goals. Throughout his career at Malmö, which started in 2013, Paweł has played 59 times and scored 69 times. Could that be thanks to the talent level in the Allsvenskan? Or is Cibicki that prolific. I think we all think it's one of those things, but let's hope it's not all thanks to that.
Welcome to Leeds #lufc #mot pic.twitter.com/Hba4EELHo1
— Alan (@AlanBriggs__) August 30, 2017
The reported fee for Cibicki is around £1.9m, relatively good business yet again in this crazy transfer market. Cibicki has signed a four-year deal with the Whites, yet another player that Leeds have committed to for (hopefully) a long period of time, and that’s always a good sign. Now a debate begins about if we really do need PM Lasogga, as even though there may be a logjam at striker, it's a logjam of unproven potential (Kemar Roofe excluded). For me, I think Lasogga would still be a welcome addition, but preferably after we bring in more center-back depth. Amid all the fuss about Chris Wood leaving, its almost as if we’ve forgotten that we only have two healthy natural center-backs. Time is really starting to tick down in the transfer window, so we’ll see if Thomas Christiansen and Co. have any last second moves up their sleeves.
As for now, welcome to Elland Road, Paweł Cibicki. You have your share of doubters thanks to another Swedish striker, but I’m excited to watch you work and prove them wrong. MOT